About Us

Stefan Weber was appointed Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director of Newron in 2012. He had been Chief Financial Officer of the Company since April 2005. Stefan holds a master’s degree in business management from FernUniversität Hagen (Diplom-Kaufmann). He has more than 30 years of industry experience in finance and general management. From 2001 to 2005, he was the Chief Financial Officer of Biofrontera, a company active in drug discovery and development. He joined Girindus, a fine chemistry process development and scale-up provider, in 1999, and was appointed Chief Financial Officer in 2000. From 1987 to 1999, he was with Lohmann Group, a worldwide producer of pharmaceutical, medical, technical and consumer products. His final position was Head of Finance of the Group. Stefan has executed numerous major financing transactions, debt, equity and mezzanine as well as national and European grants. He has also executed successful IPOs to the Frankfurt and Zurich stock exchanges and has been involved in a number of M&A transactions, divestments and strategic restructurings. He is German.

Ravi Anand, a Swiss resident, has been the Company’s Chief Medical Officer since 2005. He received his university education in New Delhi, India, and his medical training, specialising in psychiatry and neurology, in the U.S. For over 20 years, Ravi has worked in international drug development and regulatory affairs at major pharmaceutical companies, including F. Hoffmann-La Roche (Switzerland), Sandoz/Novartis (US) and Organon (Netherlands). From 1993 to 1997, Ravi was the Medical Director of CNS, Clinical Research at Sandoz Research Institute. From 1997 to 2001, he served as the international Head of CNS Medical Affairs at Novartis and, from 2001 to 2003, as the global Head of CNS Clinical Research at Organon. Since 2003, Ravi has been acting as a consultant for Newron and other clients. During his tenure in the pharmaceutical industry, he worked in all phases (I through III) of drug development as well as in post-marketing studies (Phase IV). In total, he has been responsible for the conduct of clinical trials in over 30 countries and been involved in over 30 investigational new drug applications, and over 7 international new drug applications. He has published over 50 papers and 200 abstracts, posters and presentations. He is both a U.S. and a Swiss citizen.

Roberto Galli was appointed Chief Financial Officer of Newron effective July 1st, 2023. He has been Vice President Finance of the Company since 2012. He has more than 20 years of experience in industry finance and auditing. He joined Newron in 2002. He has held several management positions within the Finance Department and has been involved in the Company’s IPO, as well as M&A and other strategic corporate transactions: he was instrumental in finalizing the EIB funding facility. Before joining Newron, he was Senior Auditor & Business Advisor at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), leading auditing projects in companies from the pharmaceutical, fashion, energy and automotive industries. He started his career as an auditor at Coopers&Lybrand. He holds a master degree in business economics from the University Luigi Bocconi in Milan and is registered with the national register of auditors. He is also a member of the Italian Angels for Biotech Association. Roberto Galli is Italian.

Dennis Dionne has been Vice President of Commercial Affairs since January 2017. He joined Newron Pharmaceuticals as Executive Director of Commercial Operations in 2015. Dennis has tremendous experience in the CNS arena and served in a variety of commercial leadership roles at Johnson & Johnson (21 years), at Novartis (6 years) has pioneered a number of small venture start-ups. He has proven abilities in planning and management at both strategic and operational levels, including building full life-cycle commercial strategies at the pre-launch stage and managing the business through various stages of growth. Dennis holds a BA in Biology & Chemistry from Roger Williams University, Bristol, RI and has successfully completed executive leadership programs in general management and operational leadership, commercial policies and practices, marketing and project management and global cross functional team leadership. Dennis Dionne is a U.S. citizen. 

Filippo Moriggia was appointed Vice President Operations of Newron effective July 1st, 2022. He has held several management positions, including IT, HR and compliance responsibilities, since he joined Newron in 2016. He has more than 15 years of experience as an IT professional advisor. He started his career as a technical editor for different national magazines of the Mondadori Group. He holds a master degree in Engineering from the Politecnico di Milano and is a licensed professional engineer since 2005. Filippo Moriggia is Italian. 

Laura Faravelli was appointed VP Business Development on July 1, 2023. Since 2015, Laura has held various management roles in Newron’s business development function.  She has over 20 years of experience in international research, development and regulatory approval of new products for central nervous system indications and in drug repositioning. Laura holds a PhD in Neurobiology and a master’s degree in Regulatory Affairs and Market Access.  Before transitioning to business development, she held management positions in Newron’s R&D unit, including in discovery, pharmacology research and non-clinical development, contributing to successful European Medicines Agency marketing authorisation application (MAA) and US Food and Drug Administration new drug application (NDA) processes. She started her post-academic career at Pharmacia & Upjohn. Laura Faravelli is Italian.